


Deal

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-16
Updated: 2006-05-16
Packaged: 2017-11-23 20:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slade and Dick have a discussion</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deal

**Author's Note:**

> Slight AU on events surrounding Infinite Crisis where the Haven wasn't nuked... among other slight changes.

The cold prickle down his spine had less to do with the blade under his chin, and far more to do with whom was holding it. The hero knew he could probably evade any lethal cut, but he also knew that he would get injured. The sword was a warning, and tonight, he was of the mind to obey it, still feeling the effect of Alexi’s almost fatal shot.

“Getting sloppy,” came the dispassionate voice. The sword slipped away from under his chin, moved with such precise control that it left a thin cut, no greater than the width of a paper cut. The hero did not even bother to ask how the man was on the loose again. The day this villain stayed where he was put was the day they put him in the ground for good.

“Why have you come?” He did not feel like beating around the bush tonight with this man. “I told you not to ever come near me again,” he added, with some heat. “What you did…you broke your word!” He turned to view his nemesis standing there, sword now back in its scabbard. “All those people,” he whispered.

“It was a job. Our deal was void when I made it; I had already been hired to make the point the Society wanted.” That was as close to an explanation as the man in the full mask would make. “You had your revenge.” That last sounded almost bitter, the hero noted. Rose. He was referring to Rose.

“I warned you I’d find a way to hurt you if you crossed me,” the hero informed him. The man in orange and blue nodded, clearly not here to fight this time.

“I’m here to make you an honest deal.” He leaned nonchalantly against the wall. “Before you go off to see the world with ‘him’.”

“I owe you nothing.” The hero glared balefully at his nemesis again. “I could almost….”

“Kill me? I think you and your little warped family have established that there are limits to your ability to avenge those you protect.” The sword bearer shook his head. “This deal is for both of us.”

“What, then? What in hell are you wanting?”

“Find her. Put her somewhere safe,” the murdering sociopath said, referring again to Rose. “Don’t let her run free, with no guidance.”

“What?!”

“If you don’t, it will come back to haunt us both, I guarantee it.”

“And you will?”

“I will make sure your hometown does not suffer the absence of her guardian too greatly.”

The hero stared in complete amazement. Here was the man he had fought alongside, back when he was young, when he had thought that people could be convinced of the errors of their ways. He had never understood Deathstroke, how the man could be so completely amoral and yet so bound by those few people he saw as his own.

“Rose will be with the Titans as soon as I find her,” he finally promised.

“And Gotham will stay quiet.” They parted ways then, not pushing the extent of their tolerance for one another.


End file.
